Problem: High volumes of different products, many of which are physically similar and many of which are time sensitive, must be recorded and moved from manufacturing to finished goods pending shipment and then retrieved for loading of full truck load shipments.
Issue #1: Accurately record finished goods transaction

Issue #2: Finding all the product for a given shipment, one wrong pallet generates $1100 in cost to rectify

Issue #4: Making short manufacturing set ups and runs to replace material that cannot be located

Solution: Print labels at each production line as cartons are filled. Scan a bar code from a shop order and from a raw material tag in order to make sure raw material and label printed are right for the product.

Using a network of Intermec Smart Printers, Fingerpoint programming, data from the manufacturing system and scanners attached to the printers: Retrieve product data for label content; Validate raw materials used; Assign each carton a unique pallet ID and automatically print pallet labels as needed; Feed finished good transactions to the manufacturing system and report down time for each line. All accomplished without having a PC or other terminal in the network.

Benefits: Labor required to pre-print labels and apply them to boxes was eliminated. Only the exact amount of labels needed are produced, eliminated wasted labels and boxes. Floor space and labor that was used to pre-label boxes is now available for other purposes. Product is never mislabeled, customer complaints (and potential liability) are gone. Production time once lost re-making mislabeled or rejected product is now producing revenue. Overall inventory data is accurate and up to date at the moment a label is produced, enabling the manufacturer to reduce overall inventory levels. All scrap for time sensitive shipments has been eliminated. Exorbitant costs for error handling, shipping, corrective actions, etc. are eliminated.